Trip planning site Kayak has launched a new Travel Trends portal, which reveals the most cost-efficient periods to travel based on data from 1.5 billion annual searches, and is free to use.
Kayak.co.uk/trends reveals historic and predicted costs from (January 2014 to December 2018) for flights to and from specific destinations, as well as fluctuations in hotel and car rental prices.
The online tool lets flyers monitor pricing year-by-year and month-by-month, spot the most popular destinations, view search patterns for cities over time, and identify cities trending and declining in popularity.
If a traveller is willing to be flexible with the date of travel, long-haul flights can be 44 per cent cheaper. Passengers are all aware of peak seasons for travel but Kayak provides tangible evidence for shifts in price and popularity throughout the year.
For example, the Travel Trends portal shows that economy class flights from London to New York typically cost £368 in September verus £571 in July.
Data shows similar trends for other long-haul routes. Flights from London to Singapore in October cost an average of £768, but were only £498 in May. Flights to Dubai in December will cost a traveller £540 but can be booked in May for £332.
| Destination (flying from London) | Cheapest Month Cost | Most Expensive Month Cost | Savings |
| Melbourne | £586 (May) | £949 (Dec) | £363 (-38%) |
| Singapore | £498 (May) | £768 (Oct) | £270 (-35%) |
| Las Vegas | £476 (Feb) | £807 (Jul) | £331 (-41%) |
| Boston | £341 (Nov) | £608 (Jul) | £267 (-44%) |
| Dubai | £332 (May) | £540 (Dec) | £208 (-39%) |
| New York | £368 (Sep) | £571 (Jul) | £203 (-36%) |
| Faro | £59 (Nov) | £177 (Aug) | £118 (-67%) |
Suzanne Perry, Kayak travel expert said: “We’ve always had great tools to help travellers plan and manage their travels and now, a market first, Brits can use our Travel Trend Dashboard to help get a comprehensive overview of the ever-changing face of travel.
“At Kayak we want to share our travel know-how and provide profound insight into travel trends. There is a lot of interest in this kind of data, and it is exciting that through this dashboard this information is now available for everybody.”
The data is pulled from the 1.5 billion searches the website and app generates annually and is updated monthly to give the most relevant information.
Other interesting comparisons you can make are between UK airports. For example, the most popular destination for people looking to depart London in March 2017 was Mumbai, but from Edinburgh it was Amsterdam.
Of course, users have to bear in mind that users of Kayak are probably booking holidays rather than business trips and not all searches will have ended in a reservation. Nevertheless Travel Trends can be a useful resource.
By Kourtney Webb
